Buckle up! NGO Wheel Well is taking its foot off the brakes in the fight against the illegal importation of restraining devices and car safety seats for minors. Moreover, the efforts of its founder, Peggie Mars, to stick her neck above the parapet for the sake of children is beginning to reap results. A “multi-function baby car seat for baby safety” – to quote the sales pitch word for word – is one of the most recent devices Wheel Well has managed to have removed for allegedly not passing muster with the National Regulator of Compulsory Specifications (NRCS). Sold for the ‘unbelievable’ amount of R309, Mars assumed a gloves-off approach when she took the fight to Takealot. In an email shared with FTW, the advocate for child road safety couldn’t be more frank when she indicated that the item in question had not, in her view, passed Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) regulations – the same safety standards to which the NRCS is expected to adhere. “There is no way that this thing passed ECE regulatory testing or your scrutiny,” she said. “It’s an extremely dangerous device to use as a car seat and must be removed from circulation with immediate effect.” As far as FTW could ascertain, Takealot promptly complied with her demand that the product “be removed from circulation with immediate effect”. Further investigation revealed that the “multifunction car cushion”, as it is advertised on another equally popular e-commerce site, was still available for purchase – at an even better price of R290. In the email Mars shared with FTW, she also asked that a press release be issued “to warn the public of the dire consequences of using the device”, and that charges be laid against “everybody in the value chain that has brought this product” to market. Initially, Takealot was asked if the distributors of this product had a letter of authority (LOA) for this seat. LOAs, issued by the NRCS and required by law for imports brought into South Africa, have been a longstanding issue with Mars who claims that e-platforms that don’t check whether what they sell is legal or not are awash with unsafe products. Mars also turned to the NRCS whose technical specialist in its automotive division, Dries van Tonder, assured Mars that action would be taken. “We will proceed with a formal investigation of the matter to ensure that in the event of a non-compliant product being for sale, such products will be removed or stopped from being offered as baby car seats,” he said. Mars, who has long held the conviction that the regulator is not doing enough to protect consumers from being exploited by unscrupulous merchants selling illicit goods online, made her position very clear. “I need to point out that in this case there is no question of possible compliance. There is no way that the product in question could have passed any regulatory scrutiny or vetting process as a child restraint. “I appeal for urgency in dealing with this product. Our lower income families are being taken advantage of and our children are at risk of serious injury or even death.” Mars reiterated that consumers, before buying safety seats for kids online, should make sure that the products are listed on the NRCS’s homologation database, the regulation registry confirming whether a product has been issued with an LOA. It’s also not the first time she has taken up the cudgels on behalf of unsuspecting parents who may fall prey to unsafe, unregulated car restraining devices and safety seats. Previously her opposition to illegal products for child car safety sold online led to the closure of a site called Happy Deals who were marketing a brand of seat called “Wonder Woman” – an item that is not on the NRCS database. FTW has since established that other sites are still selling these seats which, Mars said, the NRCS and the SAPS should have at least tried to remove from South Africa’s market. Given the proliferation of illegally imported products via e-commerce platforms countrywide, Mars advised parents to make sure that all accessories carried ECE signage. “The best thing to do is buy these items in store where they can be properly inspected and to remember that if the price is too good to be true – it probably is fake and therefore dangerous.”
INSERT: Our lower income families are being taken advantage of and our children are at risk. – Peggie Mar